I'm a Libertarian living in Humboldt County, CA. I've lived here in Eureka since 1973 and joined the Libertarian Party in 1992. This blog will mostly focus on local political issues, but I may stray into state and national issues as well, when I can't help myself. Please post your comments by clicking on the "comments" link at the bottom of each post. Although I do moderate comments, you need not be a registered user to post them.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

New Plastic Bag Recycling Web Site

Stumbled on to this new web site this morning that promotes recycling of plastic bags.

I've found a few surprises already, one being that the plastic wrap that toilet paper and paper towels come in are supposedly recyclable. Same with those plastic zip lock bags that nearly everyone uses. I had no idea.

Here's the page with an illustrated list of recyclable plastic bags. I'm a confused by their list of plastic bags not to add to recyclables which includes "NO other bags or films". What other kinds are left?

They have a page for retailers to add their names to the list of businesses that accept plastic bags. I'm sending an e-mail to them to let them know in California all grocery stores are required by law to have containers for people to drop of their plastic bags for recycling.

What I'm still curious about is whether all the other types of plastic are acceptable for drop off at those stores? I know plastic shopping bags are, but what about the paper towel wrappers?

And, for those in Eureka that are unaware, plastic bags should not be placed in your blue recycling containersuntil further notice.

Seems like you see it as a glass half empty while I see it as a glass half full. I was surprised that so many of the plastic bag types were recyclable.

We need to remember, though, that much of the recycling capability has to do with location and economics. For instance, local recycling doesn't accept plastic shopping bags as they lose money transporting them to be re-manufactured (probably true of some other recyclables, as well, as far as cost vs. benefit goes).

You can drop them off at just about any grocery store. That solves the problem on your end, but I'd think it's an added expense to the stores. Still, seems to be working well enough.